Monday, 12 June 2017

Doaa Yule

In this time of warped realities, of fake news, fictional news, non-news, and knowledge twisting news of lies and propaganda Doaa Yules' degree work questioned the philosophy of knowledge. 'Fact' above was suspended twigs which could be viewed a 'Fact' or a random collection of twigs suspended, depending upon your viewpoint.

"Meaning, being and knowledge, those floating concepts with no exactness are endlessly, form and reform. This makes any attempt to fully understand, a delusional process. Ambitiously, I tried to see if I can capture them and tried to see if anyone had managed to. Philosophers, scientists, etc. all seem to be wandering inside the same cycle, infinitely wandering after the light, blinded. I found myself wandering after the light, blinded. Through meaningful, meaningless “objects”, suggesting meaningful, meaningless “ideas”, I try to communicate our state of, “wandering after the light blinded”.Prisoners in Plato’s Cave allegory take shadows, as reality, the cave and shadows are their world, even the shadows of their own bodies taken as their selves. They learn through shadows, how to live and what living is. That is what they found themselves in, what seems to be a choice is a choice of what is there. What seems to be knowledge is, knowledge limited by their abilities and their environment. Being is surreptitiously forming them, placing their rails and setting them on those rails, to go endlessly round and round in the same cycles thinking that they are discovering new things and seeing new worlds, yet, they do not know, that they are just shadows. Similarities between our situation and theirs make me question concepts of reality and knowledge; aren’t we prisoners of our senses, prisoners of our worlds, of what we get taught to be "facts" and "normal"? Can we think outside all of that? Do language and perception, in which concepts are embedded, dictate how we think and form ways, through which we see and categorise everything around us?" …Doaa Yule

Through this exhibition, I aim to demonstrate glimpses of these ideas; my goal is to shake our granted belief in knowledge, reality and even the self, as solid, concrete concepts. I present a body of artworks using various mediums, such as sculpture, light and moving image. I express these concepts from different angles, using the rich significations of Plato’s cave allegory as a unifying theme. Doaa Yule